The Boys from Syracuse

Out of a cubbyhole office in Manhattan
last week came news of the biggest deal in theatrical real estate since
the purchase of land for the Radio City Music Hall. The deal: Shubert
Brothers had bought the plot between Manhattan's 44th and 45th
Streetsjust west of Times Squareon which sit four of the busiest
Broadway theaters (the Shubert, Broadhurst, Booth and Plymouth).

For the reported price of $3,500,000, paid to the William Waldorf Astor
estate, the Shuberts also got famed "Shubert Alley," the narrow
thoroughfare through the block, in which Lee Shubert's big...